I don't really know if we can call the waitlist system unfair because the Expertflyer system sometimes are not exactly accurate. I one had a similar situation where Expertflyer did show 1 or 2 seats in the booking class that I needed but when I called MPC DM hotline, they said that booking class is still not available. So I called my friend who works for CX to help me check the loading of the flight and also the availability for each subclass, and she said that it shows as being 0 in the CX system.

So now when I check Expertflyer, I take it with a grain of salt because it is not always 100% correct... And this is true not just for CX, I've found this to be true with EK, AA, UA, CI, and CO.

As for award seats, if you are DM you can call MPC agent to check with their capacity control supervisor to confirm the seats. MPC has their own award seat quota that is completely separate from Revenue seats and are able to force confirm the seat for Diamond members. I once was able to confirm an award seat from HKG to PVG while my friend was still on waiting list for a revenue seat and that flight was already oversold in Y.

So when dealing with Revenue tickets, you need to contact CX reservations directly as MPC does not have control or the ability to check with capacity control supervisor.. but if you are dealing with a Award ticket, they might be able to work some magic...